'The special qualities, differences and abilities of everyone in our Almond Hill community are valued and celebrated'
Miss Porter - Diverity Lead
Equality and diversity at Almond Hill
Our school is committed to ‘Aim High’ and ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, carers, and parents who form part of our school community and receive services from our school. We aim to promote an ethos of inclusivity and to celebrate the diversity of all those who are connected with our school to ensure all groups prosper regardless of the protective characteristics.
At Almond Hill, we aim to foster good relationship between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. We promote friendship, tolerance, and understanding of uniqueness. This may be achieved through teaching in RE and PSHCE lessons, in reading text and stories from different cultures, learning a modern language or exploring music from different parts of the world for example. We discuss world and current issues in assemblies and invite our children to lead assemblies. We promote links with our local community and welcome visitors with special knowledge to support our learning and understanding.
What is equality?
Equality is ensuring individuals or groups that are not treated differently or less favourably on the basis of specific protected characteristic, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.
How is the Equality Act 2010 relevant to young people's lives?
Discriminatory behaviour often stems from ignorance. A lack of understanding of different cultures, beliefs or lifestyles is often a factor in things like bullying.
It’s essential to educate young people about equality, diversity, identity and human rights so that they learn to respect others, celebrate diversity and recognise prejudice and discrimination.
As children get older, they’ll increasingly find themselves in positions where issues of inequality and discrimination can impact them: in school, in further education, in work and in wider society.
Teaching children about their rights and the rights of others is important, and knowledge of the Equality Act 2010 will mean children can speak out on issues related to equality, now and in the future.
What is diversity?
Diversity involves promoting and celebrating the differences between us. It’s associated with promoting human rights, and is based on principles like dignity and respect. It requires taking into account and valuing people’s different backgrounds, knowledge and experiences, and creating an environment that makes positive use of these differences.
What’s the difference between equality and diversity?
Equality involves making sure everyone has equal opportunities, ensuring that nobody is treated differently because of protected characteristics.
Diversity involves considering the differences between people and valuing these differences as a positive.
Last week we celebrated 'Inclusivity Week'. We discussed what being inclusive meant to us and about the meaning of the word diversity. We celebrated what makes us different and unique and how this enriches our lives. We thought about why sometimes people are not inclusive and how this makes people feel. We watched videos to help us understand which situations are not acceptable and we learnt about the definition of a hate crime. Please ask us all about how we can be more inclusive because we have lots of great ideas!
4L loved the video and diversity tasks. Here's our jigsaw all about us - differences and all. ‘I like talking about our differences this week in Inclusivity week. Some people might think being different is bad but it's not! We like to celebrate our differences at Almond Hill’.
